The method of this invention resides in the field of process manufacturing of foodstuffs and, more particularly, in the area of process manufacturing of fish meat.
The manufacturing process of making fish meat into patties or nuggets has been known for many years. The final product, a patty or a nugget, was actually formed flaked fish meat. The making of the product was begun with trimmings of fillets of whole fish and minced fish frozen into large blocks. The frozen blocked trimmings and minced fish meat were then cut into smaller pieces for placement into a chopper or shaver for creating small flakes or granules of fish meat. The fish meat, in its flaked or granular state, was combined with potato flakes and milled wheat granules to bind the flaked or granular particles of fish meat together. Vegetable oil (or a substitute) and seasonings were added and the entire combination was mechanically mixed together for less than a minute. The resulting fish meat paste was put through a forming machine, either mechanically or hydraulically driven and fed, for compacting the fish meat paste into formed patties or nuggets. The formed patty or nugget was then breaded, pre-fried, packaged and cold-stored.
This process required the use of binders to cause the granular sized particles of fish meat to stick together in order that the vegetable oil, seasonings and flavorings could be added and uniformly distributed throughout the fish meat combination by mechanical mixing. The drawback to this method was that the fish meat combination would not stick together without the binding agents. The various acceptable binding agents caused a disparity in the uniform consistency of the resulting product, differences in taste and visual acceptability of the product, and required preservatives for a reasonable shelf-life. With the exception of the process of the present invention, this manufacturing process of fish meat patties and/or nuggets is still in use today.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to achieve uniform granular consistency of the resulting fish meat product by using a binding technique utilizing a naturally occurring fish meat protein without having to resort to synthetic or additive binders.
It is another object of the present invention to achieve a process for manufacturing fish meat products using fish meat waste from the filleting or cutting of whole fish.
It is still another object of the present invention to achieve a process for manufacturing fish meat products without need for fillers, synthetic chemical binders and/or preservatives and, thus, keep the nutritional value of the foodstuff high.
It is yet another object of the present invention to achieve a process for manufacturing fish meat products taking advantage of and using naturally occurring proteins in fish meat to obviate the need to add synthetic binders, preservatives, moisturizers, and other adulterating and denaturing products which adversely affect the flavor, taste, and visual acceptability of the fish meat product.
Other objects will appear hereinafter.